The Photography Program Presents Tina Barney

Barney’s photographs expose the emotional and psychological currents that course just beneath the surfaces of perfect trappings and banal gestures. Barney notes, “When people say that there is a distance, a stiffness in my photographs, that the people look like they do not connect, my answer is, that this is the best we can do. This inability to show physical affection is in our heritage.” While the myth that material comfort ensures personal contentment is an alluring one, Barney’s photographs undermine such illusions, even in later images in which the focus has shifted away from context to the personality and face of the sitter. In these more recent photographs of family and friends—many of which eliminate her directorial approach and allow for more self-presentation to the camera—Barney continues to make photographs distinct from family snapshots or formal group portraits in their refusal to serve as predictable commemorations of happy times, important gatherings, and ritualized affection. 

Among her exhibitions are a mid-career exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1991 and the Whitney Biennial, 1987. More recently, her work has been shown at the New York State Theatre in New York, in 2011;  The Barbican Art Centre, London;  Museum Folkwang in Essen, Museum der Art Moderne, Salzburg, and others.  In October, her work will be included in a major portraiture exhibition at The National Gallery, London.   Barney was the recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in 1991, and  the 2010 Lucie Award for Achievement in Portraiture.  Her monographs include Tina Barney:  Theatre of Manners, The Europeans, and her new book from Steidl, Players.